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Archive for 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009

Junclassic "Angst" (tagged): Here's another preview from the Offshore Drilling project I'm working on with Kid Hum. Hum himself has been a fan of this one ever since he grabbed it. This is the second track Jun contributed to the project, and both came out fresh. His delivery is so on point - truly one of my favorite MCs right now.

This is an unmastered, tagged up version. The full project will be coming in March, by hook or by crook! Keep it locked for more info.

Sean Wyze "L.A." (prod. by Jansport J): Here's some shit to knock in your speakerbox. J hit me with this cut, which is set to drop on the forthcoming Artillery Clothing mixtape; I've never been off the East Coast, but I fucks with this ode to the City of Angels.

My homey DJ Concept just don't stop with this mix. Pennant Race got at him to do a tape in support of their Spring '09 fashion line; he based the concept (no pun intended) for this mixtape off of two of their tees: The Garden Courtside Tee & The Staples Courtside Tee. Now do you realize why Jack Nicholson and Spike Lee are on the cover, and laced throughout the mixtape?

I don't know about you, but when I was in high school, I was a huge fan of Prince & The Revolution. For those of you who know the score, you should know who Wendy & Lisa are. Childhood friends, and talented artists, they've been through a lot - they were active in music before The Revolution, arguably made their most famous mark with Prince, helping usher in the "blue eyed soul" sound in the 80s, and when they eventually left his fold, something was definitely missing. They weren't, though, making their own music, as well as collaborating with artists like Seal, Eric Clapton, Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow, among others. In December, the digital release of their latest album, White Flags of Winter Chimneys, was self-released through their website, and I got a chance to speak with them about this, their song-writing and other points of interest...

khal: Your new album is being released solely via your website, wendyandlisa.com. When did you decide to put it out in this manner? What are the pros and cons on releasing music this way?

Lisa: We decided to make the record with or without a record deal. I had pretty much let go of the idea of being signed and going through the traditional grinding of the music business a long time ago. I don't think it has served me for what I want to do. The record business is chasing a high that is impossible to catch. It does not exist anymore. There is nothing new about ''Rock ‘N’ Roll", they just keep trying to get bigger and better, more outrageous and more glamorous, younger sexier, crazier… and there is nowhere left to go. The songwriter, musicians and artists have no way to discover a sound or a niche. Musicians have reached out through websites and the Internet because it allows them to create themselves in a comfortable place at a comfortable pace, and to see and feel the direct response from the people they want to reach. No one is second guessing the clothes they wear, or the drum sounds, or any part of the content. It is a horrible feeling to try and please a middle man only to fail in the eyes of the fans! For us the internet and the direct contact with our listeners, it’s a gift of unimaginable riches. With the help of our manger, Renata Kanclerz, we have discovered and are trying all that is at our fingertips LITERALLY through the beauty of Internet communing. HI PEOPLE!!

Wendy: We knew as soon as we started writing these songs that we would release the material on our own. The pros? Because we have a fan base, we can reach them one-on-one, and bypass the 3rd party (labels). This means direct access to the listener. The cons? Don't want to think about that.khal: In reading up on you two, I noticed you score the TV show Heroes, among others. How did you get involved in a project like this? Are you fans of the show?

Lisa: YES! I have been a comic book and sci-fi fan all my life. It is a dream come true to work on Heroes. We didn't know at the time, but when we met Allan Arkush in 1996 (?), it would become a long lasting and extremely valuable relationship. Allan is something of a cult hero himself, director and writer of Rock n Roll High School, among other cult type films... Get Crazy, and a list of Roger Corman masterpieces. Allan came to us to score a television series created by David Kelly (of Ally McBeal fame), called Snoops. The show didn't take off, but our friendship with Allan did. We worked with him on several projects that eventually lead to Heroes and a relationship with creator Tim Kring.

Wendy: Are we fans? YES! My fingers are crossed that the show gets its heart back. It feels a bit lost in its intentions. The first season was killer! We got this gig because of our relationship with the producers and creator. We spent 6 yrs on Crossing Jordan and they are the same people on this.

khal: While White Flags Of Winter Chimneys contains an array of musical styles, the thing that is constant is your dynamic song-writing. What's your process for writing songs - will you have the lyrics done first with a certain melody, or are you attempting to do, say, a Trance-influenced track and building lyrics around that?

Lisa: We almost always write the music first. Wendy and I play together and create musical environments, or grooves, and we love playing music so it is always the easiest part of the writing process. Then we sit and listen, pencils in hand, and start writing words that come into our heads, or sing melodies. We try to come up with a rhythm or sometimes a number of syllables and then start writing lyrics. From that point on, anything can happen. Sometimes, the music has to change to accommodate the lyrics, and sometimes it just fits perfectly and a song is born!

Wendy: Funny you should ask about Trance… I’m a huge fan of electronic music and the idea of composing a piece of music that would otherwise not need lyrics is really a cool idea to me. Did we achieve that on White Flags? I think we did.

khal: Without delving too deep into your well-documented past with Prince, would you like to comment on your relationship as of right now? You've made a few appearances with him, in live settings and on record, over the last few years. Any plans to work together in the future?

Lisa: We are always open to working with Prince. He calls every once in a while to ask us to do something, and we answer. The unfortunate part that is sometimes frustrating is that it is always on his terms and when he wants to do it.

Wendy: We have told him consistently that we would LOVE to write again and do a project together. No word yet. It's up to him. He needs to make that happen. We are like the friend who always calls to ask you to hang, and they never call back. Ugh.

khal: Which artists of the current music scene would you say are some of your favorites?

Lisa: That is a hard question but off the top of my head, I recently have been loving ELBOW, Little Dragon, Q-Tip, The Roots…

Wendy: I love the band LITTLE DRAGON!

khal: Outside of your own music, do you have any current song-writing or production going on with any other artists?

Lisa: We did some fun things with Jill Sobule and want to do more! We also are trying to get everybody together to continue our ideal groove band EDITH FUNKER (known previously as Funk Sway), as seen in the movie Before The Music Dies.

Wendy: It’s ?uestlove on drums, Erykah Badu on vocals, Doyle Bramhall on vocals and guitar, me & Lisa on keys, and Mike Elizondo on bass. Also, James Poyser on keys and Susannah Melvoin on backing vocals.

khal: Why did you title this album White Flags Of Winter Chimneys?

Lisa: The title came late in the game. Only after we had a glimpse of what we had done, Wendy came to work with the title in mind. White Flags of Winter Chimneys is a lyric from a Joni Mitchell song. The meaning is of surrender and to us represents a place of warmth in the middle of a frost. So... not only are we tremendously fond of Joni Mitchell, but we have weathered a storm of life experiences that brought us to a refuge in each other and our ability to create music.

khal: One of the versions of this album is a sprawling colored vinyl opus. Do you two still listen to music on vinyl? People spoke on a possible resurgence of vinyl in the record shops (mainly due to lovers of Punk, and some DJs); do you ever think the music-buying public will pick back up on vinyl, or is it a dead medium?

Lisa: I think people will add vinyl back into the mix because it is just a great way to deliver music. It sounds fantastic, there are thousands of albums out there NOT available on CD; there is no reason to abandon a perfectly good medium. It might just have a chance to be another way to collect and enjoy sound.

Wendy: No, I don't think its dead, but it is sleepy for sure. I would love to see it come back.

khal: Will you be going on tour in support of this release? What can fans expect from a Wendy & Lisa show?

Lisa: We are hoping to tour in the summer. We don't know HOW we will achieve this because we need MONEY to travel and all that. Perhaps with our super band idea, EDITH FUNKER, we can raise money and interest for a show that would be like a five for one night of grooves, gripes, beats and blues!

Wendy: We are going to try and do some gigs this summer.. My goal is to get EDITH FUNKER to go out and be each others band for a night.

RTD RAPID FIRE Q&A

khal: How do you unwind?

Lisa: Lately, the thing that makes me happiest and most relaxed is reading a book with my daughter. There is nothing like it.

So there you have it. Hit up their website and take a listen to White Flags of Winter Chimneys, and order one of the many versions they have available. Special shouts to Ariel PR for hooking this interview up.

NEW YORK, NY (February 26, 2009)— Today Belvedere Vodka and Young Jeezy debut the official music video for "Circulate," the next single off Jeezy's latest album "The Recession." The video, the first project of their creative partnership, can be viewed on jeezycirculate.com, along with other exclusive content including a new commercial spot by Belvedere with Jeezy.

Shot by Terry Richardson at New York’s five-star, hotel Plaza Athenee, “Circulate” contains contributions by Gabriel Hart, who documented Young Jeezy during the historic Presidential Inauguration weekend in Washington, DC. During this weekend, Belvedere Vodka and Young Jeezy announced a creative collaboration which includes new music, videos, behind-the-scenes clips, a national tour and more from Young Jeezy’s 2009 projects. The collaboration kicked off with a party at DC’s hottest nightclub LOVE, where partygoers including Beyoncé, Bow Wow, Nelly and Ashanti, celebrated with Belvedere cocktails and enjoyed a performance by Jeezy, Jay-Z and T.I.

I just got word from the FrostWire heads that Black ELement's A Major Minority has been making a splash on their P2P site! Word is the owner, Gubs, found AMM in December, got at Black EL and asked if he could help blast his album; now it looks like AMM on FrostWire has racked up 1500+ downloads already! Talk about the power of the 'Net. Check out this post on FrostWire for a dope article on Black EL (which includes snippets of my interview), and grab it if you haven't heard it yet. Then make sure you check out more of what FrostWire has to offer.

Big Kuntry "Swavor" [clean \ dirty]: While I have no problem getting new Kuntry King tracks, I can't find the one track of his I fuck with: "Goin' Hem". Shouts to my boy Cyanide for hooking me up with a joint I lost... anyways, is this nigga ever gonna blossom on his own? I guess, with Tip going away very soon, someone has to ride (or die) for P$C.

Yea Big & Kid Static "Bots": I haven't heard much from this duo in a bit, but its good to know they were in the lab churning out proper product. Check out their ode to one of the more classic characters in video game history, Mega Man. Their forthcoming album, The Future's Looking Grim, features "11 bangy glitchers, full of cacophonous synths, syllabic tumbling and enough boom-bap and flow for even the most staunch heads". This LP will drop digitally on April Fool's Day on Jib Door, with the CD release coming in the summer. If you're in Iowa, they will be performing at the Mission Creek Festival, with the GZA.

Reflection Eternal ft. Bootsy Collins "Internet Connection": Yes, Reflection Eternal is BACK! They're working on their 2nd LP (finally!), and decided to leak this ode to technology, featuring the legendary Bootsy, who happened to be in the studio and wanted to lay something down on this one.

For you NYC heads, RE will be performing with a live band at the Blue Note on March 10th + 11th. Should be a great show! Shouts to Tunji for the heads up.

Cy Yung "All About H.E.R." (prod. by Cynergy Soundz): This it taken from Cy's forthcoming BPA Presents: Cyrano's Edict EP which is set to drop on July 4th, and features production from Cynergy and J. Slikk. This is 'another sad love song' regarding the depression many feel when looking at Hip-Hop and the state its in on many levels. Toronto's Cynergy Soundz is on some ill shit with that beat, which is a bit faster, and has some ill Soul feel to the samples used within the beat. Going back to when love was great, forreal.

Watch out for Cy & Cynergy's Y'All Soon Gonna C-Y collaborative EP, which I've just heard, and is a true beast. Cy Yung also has his SoulTrain Dancer: A Tribute To Rosie Perez project coming, which is a Pete Rock & CL Smooth-esque collabo with J. Slikk... among countless other projects and tracks. BPA up in this, forreal!

EDIT I've brought this one back to the top because it's been re-upped, and to include the hot cover art that Cy passed around the other day. Yes, this post is from June 2008, but you know how it is around here.

Shelan ft. Internal Quest "What You Sayin'": Here's a nice track from Shelan, who has a beautiful voice, and rides that track (which is the perfect blend of harps and jazzy funk) with ease. I.Q. comes correct with his 16 at the end.

Meant to post this when I saw it on I.Q.'s spot, but I've been fucking busy.

This project came about pretty quickly over the last week or so. I had no idea who Whygee was until a month or so ago, when Kid Hum put me on to him while compiling our Offshore Drilling project. I then got introduced to "ChumpSin Pink", and realized this Colorado spitter isn't someone you should toy with. In conversing with him on the regular, I found out he had a few batches of unreleased material that he had created, but hit a roadblock in terms of trying to release. Over the weekend, in listening to the joints, I realized that he namechecked "Attack of the Killer Kung-Fu Wolf Bitch" in a track called "MySpaces", and had my hook.

Throughout this project, Whygee speaks on his thoughts on Hip-Hop, women and the strife that our people encounter living in this wonderful world of ours (kind of like The Boondocks, no?). The beats vary from darker, piano-driven thought provokers ("Bitchpleaze") to cavalcades of electronic fuzz-box material ("Another Cold Winter"), and the story of Mr. Bitches is weaved throughout, making this a nice, complete package.

Shouts out to Whygee and Mirrorkill, as well as the other artists featured on this project. Shouts to Aaron McGruder, Carl Jones and the rest of the people who make The Boondocks the illest show out there. And for those who want, here's an alternate download link.

EDIT I want to shout out all of the sites who've posted The Saga of Mr. Bitches:

If you don't get it, dude made a fader that allows you to change the octave of the notes your cutting up! "This is the first public view of the Fretless Fader system I designed for use with the Controller One (posted February 22, 2009). With this you can cut and change notes through 2 octaves without taking your hands away from the vinyl and fader." I'm in awe. Shouts to Perpetuum for the link.

Illogic "I Know You" (prod. by Ill Poetic): Shouts to Ill Po for lacing me with the latest leak from Illogic's Diabolical Fun album; these lyrics hit home just a bit. Good to know this album is going to be so varied, not all same-y sounding, and that its actually SAYING SOMETHING!!

Old Money "Chick Pea Jenga": This is the soundtrack to Modern Marvels, a collection of pictures that OM has accumulated of some of "the most interesting/inspiring/(insert another positive adjective here) young people in NYC". Check out the ill slideshow here.

Here's the new mixtape from the Queen of the DMV, RAtheMC. Judah is all over this on eth boards, and it features a dope line-up of MCs, from Wordsmith and Donny Goines to Fresh Daily & Fred Knuxx. Don't sleep!

Shouts to the homey Deal The Villain; I've been posting his VillainousVolumeRadio episodes since they came to fruition, and he ended up hooking a special Black History Month episode for your's truly, which you can grab here. Deal is joined by Brokn.Englsh's Cion Burris for a special session, featuring some of the finest Hip-Hop gems out there, as well as my hurt drop at the beginning. This is more real talk than some of the other shows you might've heard from this crew, which is definitely what I'm about right about now. Enjoy it!

DOOM "Cellz": I'm dropping this cut for two reasons: one, I don't see a lot of people picking up on it, and two, I love how Daniel Dumile drops those crazy found sounds from whatever random white guy audio source he finds his clips. This beat has that Blaxploitation vibe to it, and MF Villain goes for his, as per usual. If the rest of the album sounds more like this, he might have a winner.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm not really feeling DOOM over "Lightworks". Too much going on in the beat to have his scatterbrained lyricism ruining it. Props to Shake for leaking it, though.

You know how I said I rarely leave the crib, aside from work? Well, this weekend we took a trip to Philly to celebrate one of the crumbsnatcher's birthdays (love you, Tika!); as we were leaving one spot, I noticed the Punch Out pic of Mike Tyson, and grabbed the flyer, and as amazed: videos games + Hip-Hop x children's charity? Mega win! Reef The Lost Cauze, Hustle Simmons and more. All for 10 bones!?!? Hit up www.ChildsPlayCharity.org for more details on the cause, and if you are in the Philly area, go check this event out.

I dropped "Step Back" about two weeks ago, and awoke to the album it was placed on, Chicks & Snares. In Sean Wyze's words, "the concept for this album follows the life of a rapper dealing with women issues/problems as well as the musical 9 to 5"; sounds about right.

RUKUS & Soulbrotha "I'm Nigerian" (prod. by Kid Konnect): I think I heard an unmixed version of this a while ago; props to the Nigerians out there. RUK and SB flipped Weezy's "tougher than Nigerian hair" line and made it an anthem for Nigerian brothas and sistas out there. STAND UP!

Jennifer Lopez "Hooked On You" (prod. by Rodney Jerkins): Any excuse to post a picture of one of the most beautifullest females in the game always works for me, even if I'm not a fan of her actual singing voice. This sounds like something to get the dancefloors going, in the vein of Danity Kane/Britney Spears, etc., so you know what that (should/better) mean: J.Lo shakin' that ass in the video!

Day 26 "Put It On Her": Here's Day 26 making their "A Milli". I could see this working, but what DOESN'T work for me is... them. I've been watching MTB4, and keep up with the new season, and their style is just ridiculous. They are on that scarf shit, but the dude Robert's faux-hawk needs to be clipped, early. In the end, these niggas is straight Fruitopia.

Yeah, MCs in the US come with a load of fucked up dances, but for some reason, these UK niggas come with the most obnoxious dances. This shit is for niggas who have their pants too tight, or just like their battyholes loose:

No, I didn't write this, but if you dig Dillz, check out where he'll be on his 40-city tour:

Kosha Dillz does not stop. neither do his friends. His latest creation in "Freestyle vs Written" with C-Rayz Walz (released on the Modular Moods/Shemspeed label) proved to introduce his face in a genre that might not have been ready for the abnormal culture clash. Need not too worry.

After receiving countless press from the success including LA WEEKLY, Boston Herald, SPIN magazine, URB Mag and appearances with people from Matisyahu to Aesop Rock in the past year, he has decided to take his show on the road for 2 months in over 40 cities, with dates still being added, in places from the peaks of Aspen Colorado all the way to SXSW Austin Texas.

With DIY attitude that you can only count on your friends, he is fortunate enough to be accompanied by recent MTVU star Yak Ballz from March on. Flex Mathews of DC has joined him until the end of February and Roebus One of NJ and Derill Pounds of Oshkosh Wisconsin will surely round off an already diverse line up of style and origin.

The Rapperfriends Show will help promote the release of Kosha Dillz' Freestyle vs Written and his upcoming sample free project with Belief, entitled Beverly Dillz.

The introduction of "Rapperfriends" creates new crowds of people at events and theatres around the country from unifiying artists in uncommon bonds, and invites people from all walks of life for a night of fun dance and adventure.

Kosha Dillz "Dillywonka": Did you know that the sampler for Kosha Dillz' Beverly Dillz has touched down? You do now. Did you know I bought "Two Can Win" as a ringtone on my Virgin Mobile phone? You do now. Did you know that Willy Wonka is on ABC Family right now?

Trina "Blame It Freestyle": Splash has uploaded two freestyles from Weezy's ex. The only person who might seriously be wanting to check her rhymes is Danyel Smith; I imagine the rest of you are just trying to see how the booty work.

That Auto Tune on her vocal in this freestyle doesn't really appeal to me; that "Blame It" beat is my SHIT, though.

MF Doom "That's That":Here's a track from DOOM's forthcoming Born Like This album. I highly recommend it, especially for you Friday night smokers who just got off work, and are two seconds from hitting that Michael Phelps.

I dunno how they do it, but props go to OnSMASH. HipHopDX has more news, and a tracklist, for you freaks.